Disclaimer: 

The movie, 'Moana', is copyrighted by Walt Disney Animation Studio. It was directed by Ron Clements and John Musker and the co-directors were Don Hall and Chris William. It was released by Walt Disney Pictures in 2017.

I only claim copyright to the characters, and some of the elements of the story, that are of my own creation.

Chapter Soundtrack:

Swordland- Taylor Davis (thought this song might describe the current companionship between Maija, Moana and Maui)

(*3) Who Needs You- From Land Before Time

...

Chapter 5

I was eventually pulled back from the black void I'd fallen in, by the sound of wind ruffling the sail and the water lapping against the sides of the wooden canoe as it cut across the ocean surface.

But as I was yanked up from my deep unconscious state, I still felt weakness in my limbs and there was slight nausea present, too.

My mouth felt parched and scratchy and even with the summer-jacket, I was definitely shivering as the wind caressed my skin.

I looked up to see the sail rippling in the wind and smiled slightly at the sight before turning to look up at the sun for just a second before averting my eyes.

The sun seemed to be rising, not setting and therefore I knew that I'd been out much longer than I'd believed at first.

I shifted slightly and found my leg reacting to it with pain. It was a testament as to how much it had been aggravated by me not staying off the injured limb after it had been hit by the harpoon.

I couldn't suppress a slight noise of discomfort at the persistent ache in my limb and therefore, almost immediately, there was a pair of large warm hands suddenly patting lightly at my cheeks until I was screwing my face into a grimace.

'' Hnngh... what is it?'' I groaned out to whoever was bothering me.

'' Did you get enough beauty sleep?''

I turned my still slightly fuzzy vision in the direction of the familiar voice and found Maui kneeling nearby with a rather worried expression to his face.

'' Again with that question, eh, Maui? But yeah, I think I'll be fine,'' I croaked out softly with a weak chuckle.

Maui laughed at my response and moved closer to me to wound his hands under my armpits to gently pull me up into a sitting position before removing one hand to grab a coconut shell from the deck.

'' Drink slowly or you'll choke on this,'' he warned and lifted it up to my lips.

I gave a slight noise of surprise when I tasted rainwater in the cup. It was fresh rainwater, so there must have been a small rain-shower while I'd been out like a light.

I gratefully drank the water, being careful to not spill even a drop of the precious liquid until it was all gone.

'' Thank you,'' I muttered as Maui helped me back into a lying position on the deck.

'' Your welcome,'' Maui answered with a playful singing voice.

I couldn't help but laugh at his way of lifting my spirits.

But Moana uttered an exasperated sound from where she was attempting to steer the boat.

'' So how is the navigating going, Moana?'' I asked, turning my head slightly to see the chief's daughter.

But Moana's didn't smile at my question, nor break into enthusiastic chatter like she would have normally done.

In fact, she looked so very downcast and dispirited that I knew I needed to inquire the reason why she was in such mood.

I started to force myself back into a sitting position, ignoring Maui's protests and turned my attention back to the young girl who was now looking straight at me.

'' Moana, talk to me, what's wrong?'' I asked softly, feeling for the poor teenager who now looked like she would burst into tears.

'' I-it's just that, I'm sorry you got hurt. I-if I hadn't started raising my voice...,'' Moana answered with a tremble in her voice.

'' You've never travelled the ocean before, have you? So you wouldn't have known that water carries voices farther and louder than on land,'' I answered sympathetically.

I cast a warning glare in Maui's direction before he could 'butt in' on the conversation.

'' So really, I'll forgive you even though there is nothing to forgive. It wasn't your fault the Kakamoras launched a harpoon at me.''

'' I- I guess so, but I've lived on Motunui all my life, and the life there had always been peaceful, and to see you get wounded the way you did it shocked me. And it made me realize just how dangerous this mission to restore Te Fiti's heart really is,'' Moana stuttered out weakly.

''Which is why you should really consider just abandoning the whole mission,'' Maui huffed out, for which I shot him another warning look.

''But I can't, Maui! My Grandma showed me that the curse is now beginning to wrap itself around the island where my people live. The fish are gone from our reef, some of our coconut trees are producing coconuts that are dry and ashy on the inside! I don't know how long it'll take for the entirety of the curse to bring our island to ruins, and my people with it.''

Moana's looked up into Maui's eyes, her expression earnest and pained.

'' Maui, my people haven't sailed in generations after monsters emerged from the depths of the ocean and made voyaging a death-trap. None of them would be able to escape the land crumbling around them,'' Moana continued, her voice breaking at the end of her sentence.

I couldn't help but scoot all the way to the end of the boat to pull the girl in a gentle, comforting hug.

Moana slowly sunk into my arms, her tears wetting my shoulder as she held onto my waist.

'' Dear gods, she very much tries to act like a responsible grown-up but she looks like a thirteen or fourteen-year-old teenager bound to this dangerous mission. Well, maybe in this era she is considered to be an adult, already,'' I thought rather morbidly.

'' Hey, it's gonna be alright, we will do our best to fix this disaster. And I'll help you learn how to be a Wayfinder. You see, until you came along to save us from that island, I was with this big pompous windbag for the whole three hundred and sixty-five days,'' I said, trying to be comforting in my words.

Moana gave a small snort of laughter and Mini Maui was splitting his sides laughing at his bigger counterparts indignant splutter of protest.

'' I picked up a few new skills on sailing, even though I couldn't really sail beyond the reef with a hopelessly wrecked up boat.''

Moana slowly pulled away and looked up at me beseechingly.

'' Maui did tell me you were somehow transported from a different age, or world, and were shipwrecked on his lonesome island. Is it really true you have no family, no people of yours here? '' Moana said softly.

'' When I went sailing on that ill-fated day, my family was left behind, yes,'' I sighed out softly as the teenager.

'' I found it hard to believe, that someone could be brought to another time or dimension until Maui showed me some of your belongings,'' Moana said softly.

I sighed in exasperation and pinched my eyes closed for a long moment.

I didn't like the thought of Maui rummaging through my personal belongings, even to prove his story to be true.

I opened them again when Moana gave a disheartened sigh.

I would let the matter slide this time.

I brushed a wayward strand of hair from Moana's face, smiling gently at her before taking off my light summer jacket (it was becoming too hot to wear at this time of the morning) and wrapped it up into a bundle.

I then moved to the storage hatch, opened it and stuffed it into the storage- hatch.

Hey Hey immediately took it as a makeshift nest, which in turn had me roll my eyes in slight irritation at the cooky creature.

'' If he poops on it, I'll have Maui wash it for me in retribution for him having gone through my stuff without my permission,' I thought before closing the hatch.

I then turned back to face Moana and found her staring at me, or rather, what was on my skin with noticeable interest.

I knew exactly what had caught her interest.

Five months before my fourteenth birthday, my father had begun the arduous job of talking my mother into accepting a certain tradition that had been a source of several long talks between them.

And that tradition had been my 'coming of age tattoo'.

At first, my mother had been very much against the tradition as she had been raised in a society where tattoos weren't often given to teenagers.

But my father's reasonings had eventually softened mother who had, after all, embraced the difference in our societies when she had married my father.

I still thought back fondly to the last months before my birthday when my parents and immediate relatives had gone through different designs.

What became of it was a beautiful work of art that had been growing over the years.

I had several tattoos that each held meaning for me, and I wore them all proudly.

(*1) On the back of my neck, there was a strip of Maori design tattoos; the single twist (which represented the 'Path of Life and of Eternity)' was followed by the Double Twist that represented the 'Friendship for Life' that I'd felt for a certain person I'd first met when I'd been nine years old.

Between the twists was the shape of rocks and a piece of driftwood surrounded with the designs of ocean waves. It represented the place where I'd first met my friend.

Kneeling before the tidepool was the shadowy shape of a young child holding a tiny conch. A small head and antennae were poking out of the shell that housed a small little crab who I'd first introduced myself by that very tide-pool. (*2)

Because yes, I'd become friends with a crab when I'd been nine years old. But she hadn't been just any kind of crab.

I smiled slightly at the memory of getting these particular tattoos marked onto my skin before and held back a twitch when Moana hesitantly reached out to trace the friendship symbol on the back of my neck.

'' It's an interesting story as to how I was bestowed with that tattoo, but right now we don't have time for tales,'' I told Moana to stave off her curiosity, for now.

We both then turned our attention to Maui who had been silent for an uncharacteristically long while as Moana had admired my tattoos.

There was a realization, understanding and silent inner turmoil in his stance as he stood up to walk over to my side to address the two of us.

''Alright, I won't try to avoid this mission any longer. But without the hook given to me by the Gods, there is no way we could get past Te Ka, the Lava Monster,'' he muttered, the sigh in his voice telling us he was grudgingly accepting what he needed to do in order to make things right.

Maui turned and jabbed a thumb at his back where a tattoo of said demon could be seen.

'' She would smite us with her fire before we'd even come close to getting the heart back into the spiral,'' he added.

'' Do you have any idea as to where your hook might have ended up after Te Ka struck you from the sky? '' I answered with a raised eyebrow as Moana finally turned her attention back to steering the boat.

'' HAH! I'm very sure, sweetheart!'' Maui exclaimed, his expression full of certainty.

'' So where are we off to, Maui?'' I asked insistently.

''We are heading to Tamatoa's lair, which is towards the eastern horizon,'' Maui answered as he flopped back down onto the deck beside me, looking down at the very elaborate friendship tattoo on the back of my neck.

I almost shivered when his large finger traced the slender, beautifully crafted tattoo and focused my thoughts on where we were going.

'' The giant crab living in Lalotai, the Realm of Monsters?! That humongous monster crab?!'' I thought with a frown to my lips.

'' So yeah, mind telling me what this tattoo is all about?'' Maui asked me suddenly.

I uttered a sigh of utter exasperation.

On the third day on his island, I'd pulled my hair up into a messy bun and revealed the tattoos on my skin, and Maui's keen eyes hadn't missed even the slightest of art.

Since that day, I'd long forgotten to count how many times he had asked about said tattoos, and I'd been trying to avoid talking about its meaning.

The reason me being hesitant to tell Maui about this particular art, was because I was acutely aware of the history of Maui and Tamatoa.

During one of the evenings in the caves, I'd heard the story of the demigod fighting, and defeating a giant crab monster that coveted gold and anything that glittered.

Hence the reason I'd been left to guard my secret of having befriended a baby crab that may, or may not have been a miniature version of the same species he'd defeated.

I mean, Peara (pearl) had been a talking crab! And just how many species of crabs actually spoke?

'' I'm pretty sure no other species except for those gigantic creatures. By the Gods, I don't want Maui getting judgemental on me for befriending Peara,'' I thought with a silent groan and a sad expression on my face.

All this thinking of giant crabs reminded me that I still had no idea what had happened to that adorable little crustacean I'd known for five years.

I'd taken her to the beachside like I'd done every morning so that she was able to roam free until school was over for the day. But she'd just disappeared that day. And no matter how excessively I'd looked for Peara, I'd never found her again. The idea of her abandoning me never crossed my fourteen-year-old mind during those days of searching. In fact, Peara slipping off a rock and drowning in the waters of the ocean had crossed my mind several times on those days.

And yet I'd not stopped hoping that I'd see her again. Even after I'd stopped searching for her full time, I'd always returned to the beach to do my schoolwork, hoping that she'd find her way back to me.

This had been a daily schedule until I'd moved away from the house of my parents.

'' Maybe you should go ahead and plant your bottom over there and guide Moana in sailing,'' I finally said in a sarcastic voice, pointing a thumb at the girl who was listening to us with rapt attention.

'' You know it isn't just sailing. It's about seeing where you're going in your mind, and knowing where you are by knowing where you've been,'' Maui answered, getting up with a quick kick-off with his arms.

The boat rocked wildly at the movement.

'' Oh, right, I totally forgot,'' I answered playfully as the burly demigod sauntered over to Moana.

I flopped back onto the deck as my energy level made a nose-dive and the pain in my leg flared up again.

I uttered a tired sigh as I rested the back of my head against the smooth wood of the boat.

The rocking motion felt very soothing and I found myself relaxing to the point where my eyes began to close and I drifted off into the world of slumber dreams.

...

'' Oh, it's a beautiful shell, Maija!'' Peara exclaimed in delight, clicking her small pincers as she scuttled over to her friend and the shell that was being held in the human's hand.

It was a shell of a myriad of colours that blended in well with Peara's own natural albino white colour.

The human girl smiled at the small, talking crustacean as she abandoned her old makeshift carapace and made herself a home inside the new, bigger, and roomier shell.

''So, what will you do with this old shell, Peara? '' Maija asked with a chuckle as she inspected the deceptively ordinary shell left abandoned on the sand.

It certainly wasn't ordinary when the lights go out all its natural colours were revealed in a beautiful luminescent flare.

Just like Peara's, though her flare was a lot more muted.

'' You can have it, Maija,'' Peara answered with a satisfied smile on her face as she crawled to the old conch and began pushing it in her friend's direction.

Maija grinned in delight when the conch came in contact with her knee and gently swept a hand under her small friend and lifted the crab up into a fond embrace against her sternum.

Peara answered by resting her claws lightly on the sides of Maija's neck, her waving antennae tickling at the human's cheeks.

She was very aware that the sensation really made one's skin twitch, and so she wasn't surprised when her human-friend barely held back a giggle.

But instead of giggling, Maija inwardly marvelled at the fact that she had such an extraordinary friend to go along with her best human friends that she had known since her first day of school.

For a while, everything was calm and peaceful in their world...

But then everything changed in a split second...

The conch Peara had given to Maija suddenly began to vaporize into a black ash cloud!

Startled, Maija whipped her head around the beach and was met with a horrifying scene of trees and everything else she had once called beautiful and homely, disappear into a cloud of darkness that vaporized everything in its path.

Her parent's house was soon in the midst of being attacked by the consuming wall of dark billowing cloud...

'' MOM! DAD! NOOO!'' Maija screamed as she could only watch her home disappear. Tears of grief stung in her eyes.

'' AHHH!''

Maija whipped her head back when she heard Peara's keening shriek and found to her absolute horror that the darkness had ripped the crustacean away from her, too.

Maija was left kneeling on the beach entirely on her lonesome, gripping at her chest in emotional agony...

Until the tendrils of blackness found her and latched onto her like octopus tentacles.

And as if by some unseen ravenous person was gorging on her, Maija's skin began to peel off! Her bone marrow was pulled out of the bones! Her insides and blood were being sucked out of her body.

The emotional agony turned into a physical sensation, and Maija screamed and screamed until her voice turned hoarse.

Then...

There, right before the teenager's horrified eyes, she could see her own bones splayed out. Everything else had already been stripped out and only her eyes and heart (that beat against a skeletal ribcage) had remained.

But somehow, she was still alive and able to think!

Then her bones began to vaporize into dust!

But instead of being pulled into the wind, they began to burrow deep into the earth.

The last thing Maija saw before her eyes were taken away, too, was an impossibly bright flash of green light that spiralled into a swirling symbol...

...

'' AHHH!'' I gasped out as I snapped awake and whipped upright as if I had been struck in the face.

I breathed harshly for a while, my mind not taking in my surroundings as I gripped my necklace in my palm.

Until at last the hot caress of the sun upon my face and body, made my arisen panic subside.

I lifted the hand gripping the necklace to my face and hid my teary eyes from the two other individuals on the boat-deck.

That beginning of the dream had been a real memory of events past!

The conch, oh the conch, was an important reminder of my friendship with Peara!

It had been the shell Peara had been carrying on her back the whole five years she had been staying in my home.

That day she'd changed shells had been a shift in her physical size. It had marked the next stage of her life, following that period of time in which Peara had been allowed to wander away from her parent's shell and begin exploring the world on her own feet. A time where she had learned how to hide, survive and to search for a small enough protective shells to garb her back.

One would think Peara would have wanted to keep it as a reminder of her life on whatever Island she had come from. But instead, she had given it to me as a friendship gift. And now it was one of my precious treasures. The driftwood locket I was still clutching hid the conch safely out of sight and kept it safely snuggled against my sternum.

I could feel more tears pooling in my eyes, underneath my hand, as I scootched to lean against the mast.

''Gods, what the heck was that? This wasn't a 'vision dream'! It was an ordinary one! Well, more like an ordinary nightmare that rose from somewhere in my consciousness and fears,'' I groaned under my breath.

I uttered another small groan and wiped the hand across my eyes swiftly before dropping the hand to my side. I thoughtfully switched my gaze to the driftwood locket dangling against my sternum. I knew it still held the remnants of whatever essence made it glow with deep sea creature lights, even though the glow had dimmed over the past nineteen years.

'' You still determined to not tell me about that crab tattoo on the back of your neck? '' Maui asked with a grin to his lips as he peered at my much-calmed form sitting by the mast.

I turned my head to look at the demigod with a blank expression to my face.

'' You still determined to not discuss the origins of that one tattoo?'' I retorted with a drawl.

As I'd predicted, Maui immediately clamped down on asking me about the origins of my own tattoo.

I sighed in relief and exasperation; it always took the mentioning of that one tattoo to make the guy shut up, but it always left me curious as to why the story of it was so painful to Maui.

Of course, I could see that it could be a very tragic piece of personal history, with the image of a long-haired woman throwing a baby from a cliff into what looked like the ocean. Was it Maui himself deciphered as the little baby? Had he been unwanted by his parents and thus thrown off a cliff to be swallowed by the waves?

I honestly wanted these questions confirmed, but he was holding his past history from me and I wasn't the kind of person that insistently pried on other peoples background. And to be honest I, too, had dark secrets that I refused to talk about to the demigod. So why pry on his secrets when I refused to fully open up to him?

Then, entirely out of the blue, Maui started his entirely obnoxious way of cheering me up from my moodiness.

'' I need you like a crab on my foot.'' (*3)

I groaned inwardly and rolled my eyes skyward. It had been a grievous mistake to have opened him up to some of the childhood animation songs I remembered watching on TV and VHS.

'' And I need you like a shark in the face. You constantly bite the hand that feeds you,'' I shot back as I was reminded of a certain incident with the very 'impressionable' blob of water.

Very true, as Maui always seemed to turn sour whenever I showed him my excelling fishing skills even though he always craved for the meats. And it happened like every 'damn' time!

'' I need you like an oar in the gut,'' Maui sang out with a goofy look on his face as he glanced briefly at Moana.

'' Hey, you earned it!'' she exclaimed indignantly.

I barely held back a snort of laughter.

''Oh yeah? And I need you like a kick in the butt. You truly disgrace the race that breeds you,'' I retorted, honestly meaning nothing with any of the words. I'd just went along with the song.

'' Who needs you, not me,'' we both sung out together with glares on our faces.

By the time Maui and I tapered off with the antagonising song (that hadn't been the whole of it, thank goodness), Moana was splitting her sides laughing at our stances.

Somewhere in the middle of it all, I'd managed to get to my feet and get so close to the demigod's face our noses were almost touching. My hands were on my hips and I was balancing on my other leg to avoid straining my injured limb.

Maui had his arms in a bodybuilder pose and his nose was 'oh so close' to my own.

'' You guys are too much. What on earth was that? An antagonising haka or something?'' Moana managed to splutter out between giggles.

'' When you're stuck on a 'drab little island' for a whole turn of seasons with this guy around, you do end up going a little bit crazy,'' I answered with an amused smirk of my own.

'' I could say the same thing about you, kid,'' Maui retorted, but without rancour.

Mini Maui was laughing 'his little head off' at the pair of us.

Moana continued to giggle at us for a moment longer before her expression turned much more sombre and serious.

'' But seriously I really need help in becoming a true Wayfinder, and Maui wasn't much help while you were asleep. He actually peed in the ocean when I was inspecting the water currents and temperature with my hand,'' she said, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

I found myself mirroring her expression.'' Oh my gods, Maui, what were you thinking? That's revolting!'' I exclaimed and punched him lightly in the pectorals.

'' I said something along those lines, too,'' Moana muttered, glowering at Maui who just laughed at our reactions.

'' Honestly Maui, could you reign in your trickster tendencies and focus on teaching such a determined learner? I'd have given up my right arm to have had such a person to teach back in New Zealand when I worked as a sailing instructor, '' I groaned, slapping a hand across my face.

Maui finally stopped laughing and peered down at the pair of us females with a raised eyebrow.

'' Gotta admit, you, too, still have a lot to learn about Wayfinding,'' he answered.

'' Well what's it gonna be, Maui?'' I drawled out, one eyebrow raised in question.

I glanced back at Moana who was almost bouncing in anticipation.

Maui sighed, rolling his eyes to the sky before turning his attention back to the pair of us.

'' Let's start at the beginning, then. Moana, you take the oar.''

He gestured to the oar and Moana was off to take her position at the end of the canoe.

'' And you will just listen and watch as I go through the basics,'' he deadpanned and gestured for me to take a seat at the nose of the canoe.

Smiling brightly, I gave the guy a friendly shove with my shoulder as I limped passed him to do his bidding.

End of Chapter 5

...

Author Notes:

(*1) http://www.zealandtattoo.co.nz/tattoo-styles/maori-tattoo/

(*2) I'm in the process of drawing Maija's tattoo designs.

Constructive criticism is always welcomed by me, the Author :)